The rate of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia has almost doubled under the rule of the de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman [MBS], with the past six years being among the bloodiest in the Kingdom’s modern history, a report has found.
Rates of capital punishment are at historically high levels, despite a push to modernize with widespread reforms and a semblance of individual liberties. Activist groups say the price of change has been high, with a total crackdown on the crown prince’s political opponents and zero tolerance for dissent.
Pledges by MBS – who has consolidated extraordinary powers across the Kingdom’s business spheres, industrialists and elite families – to curb executions have not been kept, the new data shows, with each of the six years that he has led the country resulting in more state-sanctioned deaths than any other year in recent history.
Between 2015 and 2022, an average of 129 executions were carried out each year. The figure represents an 82% increase on the period 2010-14. Last year, 147 people were executed – 90 of them for crimes that were considered to be nonviolent.
On 12 March last year, up to 81 men were put to death – an all-time high number of executions, in what activists believe was a pointed message from the Saudi leadership to dissenters, among them tribal groups in the country’s eastern provinces.
The report – prepared by two organizations, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and Reprieve – says: “Saudi Arabia’s application of the death penalty is riddled with discrimination and injustice and the Saudi regime has been lying to the international community about its use.
“The death penalty is routinely used for non-lethal offences and to silence dissidents and protesters, despite promises by the crown prince that executions would only be used for murder,” it added. “Fair trial violations and torture are endemic in death penalty cases, including torture of child defendants.”
The kingdom is considered one of the leading exponents of capital punishment in the region, with only Iran thought to execute more people a year. In the last six years there have also been slight increases in numbers of executions of children, women and foreign nationals, as well as mass executions and executions for non-lethal offences. A moratorium on capital punishment for drug crimes was recently lifted.
Prince Mohammed has introduced extensive reforms across Saudi workplaces and society, giving women more access to gainful employment and changing social norms that had, for the four decades that followed the Islamic revolution in Iran, kept genders strictly segregated and enforced an ultra-hardline interpretation of Islam.
But while there was already little room for dissent under the Kingdom’s absolute monarchy, Prince Mohammed has taken intolerance to new levels, with political and business rivals subject to mass detention and financial shakedowns, and family members of officials that have fled the country being detained for use as leverage to get them back to the kingdom.
The death penalty is seen as one of the new regime’s more visceral tools.
“It’s literally a sword that hangs over all of us, anyone who dares to defy him,” said one Saudi royal in exile in Europe. “It’s either that, or being disappeared. Think Gaddafi. Think Saddam. That’s where we are now.”
Saudi insulting campaign to Palestine because of the Asian Cup
Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights calls on international organizations to take a stance rejecting the Saudi regime’s execution of two Yemenis residing in Saudi Arabia.
Yemen condemns the Saudi regime’s execution of two Yemeni citizens (AP)
The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights in Sanaa condemned on Sunday the Saudi regime’s execution of two Yemenis residing in Saudi Arabia.
In a statement, the Yemeni Ministry pointed out that the crime of executing citizens Mohammad Muqbil Al-Wasel, 27, from Dhamar Governorate, and Shajaa Salah Mahdi Jamil, 29, from Ibb Governorate, came after unfair and non-public trials, where the victims were deprived of the right to defend themselves.
According to the statement, the Saudi regime refrained from giving information to the relatives of the victims about the circumstances of the execution, which under international human rights law is considered torture, ill-treatment, and a crime.
The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights stressed that this crime is added to a black record and long lists of collective and individual execution crimes committed by the Saudi regime against its people and Yemenis, as many Yemeni expatriates were previously executed in similar circumstances.
The statement underlined that these crimes are a disgrace to the advocates of democracy and freedom of opinion and expression, which the United Nations, especially the US, claims to uphold.
The Yemeni Ministry called on all organizations, peoples of the world, and free countries to take a stance in the face of the crimes of the Saudi regime and condemn this crime, holding the international community and the Security and Human Rights Councils responsible for the continued crimes of the Saudi regime.
Last November, the Dhu Ali tribes called on human rights bodies and organizations to assume their moral and humanitarian responsibility by forming an independent investigation committee into the crime of arresting, torturing, and killing the Yemeni expatriate in Saudi Arabia, Ali Al-Ali, as well as other crimes.
It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia executed twice as many people in 2022 as it did in 2021, according to statistics released today by AFP.
Saudi Arabia sentences a university professor to 30 years in prison for tweets about the kingdom, its propaganda policies, and the security situation.
Muhammad Bin Muhsin Basurrah
Saudi journalist Turki Al-Shalhoub, who previously triggered a public outcry for exposing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s contentious plans against highly revered sites in Saudi Arabia, tweeted on Tuesday that the State Security Court had passed the ruling regarding the professor at the media faculty of Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, Muhammad bin Mohsin Basurrah.
Al-Shalhoub cited several connected Tweets by Basurrah and said he had commented on the disinformation campaign of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, Saudi Arabia’s 3-year diplomatic dispute with Qatar and other Arab countries, in addition to the security situation in the country.
بسبب هذه التغريدات، حكمت محاكم التفتيش #السعودية على المحاضر في قسم الإعلام في جامعة أم القرى الاستاذ محمد بن محسن باصرة بالسجن 30 سنة!!! pic.twitter.com/J3ubVCkQF0
“Saudi security forces only intervene when the sovereignty of the House of Saud is threatened; otherwise they would not take any serious actions,” the journalist commented.
Last month, the independent non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, Prisoners of Conscience, reported that state officials had jailed pro-democracy campaigner Fadi Ibrahim Nasser over tweets that denounced the government and the policies of the Saudi regime.
A Saudi opposition activist, Abdul Hakim bin Abdul Aziz, revealed that the Saudi authorities had arrested his son, Yasser, from his university, as part of the Kingdom’s aggressive crackdown against activists that criticize the performance of the ruling regime on social media.
Bin Abdul Aziz considered that the arrest of his son exposes “the oppression and tyranny of the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia and is a desperate attempt to force me to remain silent about the violations that the country is witnessing.”
It is noteworthy that bin Abdul Aziz is one of the founders of the “Zawina” organization, which is concerned with supporting the families of prisoners of conscience and exposing human rights violations against detainees and their families.
Saudi authorities sentenced 15 prisoners of conscience to death in November
At the beginning of last month, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights revealed that the Saudi authorities had sentenced 15 prisoners of conscience to death, bringing the number of people at risk of death to 53, including at least eight minors.
In the same context, the Saudi Court of Appeal extended in October the sentence of Tunisian national Mahdia Al-Marzouki, from two years and eight months to 15 years, on charges of interacting with a tweet.
Hundreds of bloggers, activists, intellectuals, and others have been arrested in Saudi Arabia ever since bin Salman became crown prince in 2017, an obvious sign of zero tolerance for dissent even against the international condemnation of repressive measures.
Over the past years, the country also redefined its anti-terrorism laws to persecute peaceful activists, repressing freedom of expression.
The sentence comes amid reports that officials shut off water and electricity and used surveillance drones to evict the Howeitat tribe to make way for MBS’ $500 million dream city.
Artist view of the ‘Mirror Line’, a 120-kilometer horizontal skyscraper, a landmark in Neom, north of Saudi Arabia (Reuters)
Two members of the Howeitat tribe in Saudi Arabia who were forcibly expelled to make room for the $500 billion Neom megacity received harsh jail sentences for the mere reason of demonstrating against the project, according to a UK-based rights organization.
Just for supporting their family’s refusal to be forcibly evicted from their houses in the Tabuk area of northwest Saudi Arabia, Abdulilah Al-Howeiti and his relative, Abdullah Dukhail Al-Howeiti, both received a 50-year prison sentence and a 50-year travel ban, according to Alqst.
The Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal’s decisions in their cases were just the latest in a slew of lengthy sentences imposed by Saudi courts this summer.
Salma Al-Shehab, a student at Leeds University and mother of two, and Nourah bint Saeed Al-Qahtani, a mother of five, received sentences of 34 and 45 years respectively in response to tweets that were critical of the Saudi government. Alqst reported last week that writer, translator, and computer programmer Osama Khaled received a 32-year sentence for “allegations relating to the right of free speech.”
According to unverified reports, a third member of the Howeitat was also sentenced at a Saudi court. “The lengthy prison sentence handed [out] against members of the Howeitat tribe follow a dangerous pattern we are seeing unfold in Saudi Arabia,” Ramzi Kaiss, legal and policy officer at MENA Rights Group, told Middle East Eye.
Since US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July, Kaiss said there had been a “more repressive approach by the Saudi state security and judicial authorities against individuals exercising their right to freedom of speech.”
Alqst‘s head of monitoring and communications, Lina Al-Hathlou, said, “This is becoming a new trend. No one will be saved from this. I think that anyone who gets arrested now will be handed a lengthy sentence.”
‘They are being watched’
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman originally revealed the plans for Neom in 2017, when he claimed a futuristic city would be constructed on Saudi Arabia’s northwest coast.
Little has been built as of yet, but huge sums have been paid to experts, and increasingly bizarre plans have been made public. Nevertheless, the Saudi government has made efforts to rid the province of Tabuk’s 170 km of its inhabitants, many of whom are Howeitat.
According to reports, compensation for displaced tribespeople who owned large properties ranged up to 1 million riyals ($266,000) and 100,000 riyals ($27,000) for those who owned smaller dwellings. But according to information previously provided to MEE, relocated Tabuk households are often given payments of roughly $3,000.
Howeitat tribespeople have reported since December that the Saudi authorities’ campaign to drive them from their land has escalated. New measures include cutting water and electricity supplies and deploying surveillance drones above residences, MEE has been told.
According to Alya Al-Howeiti, a UK-based activist and a member of the tribe, 150 Howeitat have been jailed for opposing the Neom project, including the recently condemned tribesmen.
Western consultancies condemned
Saudi’s new megacity will include a 170km straight line city, an eight-sided city that floats on water, and a ski resort with a folded vertical village, among other grandiose and architecturally challenging projects.
Prior to Abdul Rahim’s killing, the tribe and human rights organizations wrote an open letter to three consulting firms urging them to end their work on Neom “unless and until” negative effects on human rights were addressed.
MEE asked the same consultancies – Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Oliver Wyman – about the continuous allegations of human rights violations facing the Howeitat.
A Boston Consulting Group spokesperson said, “We do not comment about specific clients and projects to protect client confidentiality.” The other two companies did not respond.
“These companies should condemn the violations being committed and consider reassessing their involvement in projects that promote wide-scale human rights violations,” said Kaiss.
“If violations are not addressed or mitigated, then these companies should responsibly halt their engagement in these projects and with the authorities promoting abuses, instead of causing further harm.”
Saudi Arabia’s government and Neom also did not respond to requests for comment.
A Europe-based human rights organization expressed concerns over the imminent execution of dozens of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia, as Saudi courts continue to hand heavy punishment to human rights activists for expressing their opinion.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights [ESOHR] said in a statement that 34 people are currently on the verge of execution in the oil-rich Gulf country, noting that Saudi authorities have put at least 120 people to death since the beginning of January until the end of May this year.
ESOHR said that Bahraini nationals Jaafar Mohammad Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer, who have been accused of ‘terrorism’-related crimes, face imminent “arbitrary” execution and could be killed at any moment.
“Due to the escalation of repressive measures in Saudi Arabia, the lives of these two Bahraini youths are in danger. Many other political detainees are at the risk of execution as well,” the human rights organization said.
Back in May, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentences of Thamer and Sultan after finding them guilty of “smuggling explosives” into the kingdom and involvement in ‘terrorist’ activities.
The two Bahraini nationals were arrested in May 2015 along the King Fahd Causeway, which connects Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
They were held incommunicado for months after their arrest while being subjected to systematic and fatal torture with the aim of extracting false confessions from them.
In January, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions called on Saudi Arabia to halt the men’s execution and investigate their allegations of torture and ill-treatment.
International human rights organizations have called upon Saudi authorities to stop the imminent execution of the two Bahraini men.
The organizations have urged the officials not to ratify the death sentences, but rather, quash their convictions and re-try them in line with international fair trial standards.
According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Abdullah al-Howaiti, Jalal al-Bad, Yusuf al-Manasif, Sajjad al-Yasin, Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, Mehdi al-Moshen and Abdullah al-Razi are among the Saudi teenagers sentenced to death.
Saudi courts, ESOHR went on, have recently imposed heavy punishment and decades-long prison sentences against human rights activists and democracy advocates for expressing their opinion.
It noted that Saudi officials have sentenced Nourah al-Qahtani to 45 years in prison for her social media posts.
According to Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Qahtani received the heavy sentence on appeal after she was convicted of “using the internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric” and “violating public order” via social media.
The Washington-based group added that she was convicted under the kingdom’s so-called counter-‘terrorism’ and anti-cybercrime law.
Earlier, Saudi officials had sentenced women’s rights activist Salma al-Shehab to 34 years in prison.
The United Nations Human Rights Council said in a statement that the jail term handed down to Shehab, a mother of two young children and a doctoral student at the United Kingdom’s Leeds University, is the longest sentence ever given to a women’s rights defender in Saudi Arabia.
The statement, nevertheless, came a week before Qahtani’s 45-year imprisonment was revealed.
The UN rights council noted that Saudi authorities have taken advantage of the return to the international fold, following the savage killing of Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, to deepen their crackdown on political opponents.
Last month, ESOHR expressed grave concern over the alarming surge in executions in Saudi Arabia in the first half of the current year, saying the figure is almost twice the number during all of last year.
The new statistics fly in the face of commitments given by Saudi authorities to curb the use of capital punishments.
Last year, 65 people were executed in the kingdom, a slight drop from the previous year that ESOHR attributed partially to coronavirus restrictions.
“If Saudi Arabia continues to execute people at the same rate during the second half of 2022, then it will exceed the record of 186 executions in 2019,” ESOHR said.
Since bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has arrested hundreds of activists, bloggers, intellectuals and others for their political activities, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnation of the crackdown.
Muslim scholars have been executed and women’s rights campaigners have been put behind bars and tortured as freedom of expression, association, and belief continue to be denied by the kingdom’s authorities.
Over the past years, Riyadh has also redefined its anti-‘terrorism’ laws to target activism.
KSA is the site of a brutal attack by Saudi authorities on young girls protesting forf their rights at an orphanage in the Asir province, which sparked outrage on social media.
Part of the leaked video from the orphanage (Tasnim News)
Saudi security authorities aggressively committed violence toward young girls in an orphanage in the Asir province, which came after the girls had demanded to get their rights in the orphanage.
According to Saudi activists, the security authorities entered the orphanage with permission from the facility’s administration, and a leaked video shows the authorities chasing the girls inside and beating them.
Violence against women in #SaudiArabia is a horrific.. This is an attack by dozens of male security forces who used tasers and sticks and abused orphaned girls inside the orphanage just for their hunger strike to improve their poor living conditions.#ايتام_خميس_مشيطpic.twitter.com/NHevnNR9Ki
Saudi news outlets have reported that Asir’s Prince, Turki bin Talal bin Abdel-Aziz, has ordered the formation of a committee to convene on the incident, which the Asir Emirate has not released any information about, with the hashtag “Khamees Mushayt Orphans” going viral on social media platforms.
A mere two weeks ago, Salma Al-Shehab, a dental hygiene student at Leeds University and a mother of two, who had returned home for a vacation was sentenced to 34 years in prison for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on her personal Twitter account – for the “crime” of using an internet website to “cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security.” On Twitter, she regularly shared pictures of her young children and tweets about Covid burnout.
Court records reviewed by a human rights organization show that another Saudi Arabian woman, Nourah bint Saeed Al-Qahtani, has been sentenced to decades in jail (45 years) for using social media to “violate the public order” by the country’s terrorism court.
Abdullah Alaoudh, the director for the Gulf region at Dawn, said Saudi authorities appear to have imprisoned Al-Qahtani for “simply tweeting her opinions,” adding that “it is impossible not to connect the dots between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with [US] President Biden last month in Jeddah and the uptick in the repressive attacks against anyone who dares criticize the crown prince or the Saudi government for well-documented abuses.”
Saudi prisons, regardless of whether for females or males, are notorious for techniques of torture and abuse that go beyond human rights violations and that suspiciously resemble brutal methods used at US Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. Methods of abuse range from electric shocks, to psychological torture and sexual abuse.
MBS concealing the truth with top-dollar parties
Since Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) became the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in 2017, the country has jailed hundreds of activists, bloggers, academics, and others for political activism, demonstrating almost zero tolerance for dissent despite international condemnation of the crackdown. Muslim academics have been executed and women’s rights activists have been imprisoned and tortured, while the Kingdom’s authorities continue to deny freedom of expression, association, and belief.
The case poses evidence of how MBS has targeted Twitter users in his repression campaign, while also controlling a significant indirect stake in the US social media company through Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Most recently, the Kingdom has been using the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and its corresponding entertainment performances by renowned artists like Justin Bieber and A$AP Rocky and actresses like Elite’s Maria Pedraza to polish its image in the international arena, diverting its controversial reputation to a more moderate one as planned by MBS himself.
Non-Saudi women residing in the Kingdom, such as domestic workers under the Kafala sponsorship, are among those dramatically affected by the abuse of women’s rights, as not only are their passports taken away, but their freedom of communication and movement is limited and sexual harassment and abuse are unfortunately a daily occurrence in the household.
Saudi Police Brutally Attack Girls’ Orphanage in Asir [Video]
August 31, 2022
By Staff, Agencies
In a disturbing footage, the Saudi regime’s lies about the empowerment of women have been documented.
The baseless claims of empowering females in the kingdom have been proved the other way after the video that shows ‘security’ forces brutally attacking girls in an orphanage in Khamis Mushait in Asir region went viral.
The secretly recorded footage and photos captured the moment Saudi police stormed the girls’ orphanage to punish striking female workers who had previously demanded their workers’ and social rights.
Social media activists shared the videos and images from the incident that took place inside an orphanage southwestern Saudi Arabia, sparking widespread condemnation.
One of the videos showed a number of masked individuals and several security personnel entering the Social Education House in the Asir region in the widely circulated video clip, which was later republished by a Saudi newspaper.
The so-called Emirate of Asir region, for its part, provided the following explanation in a statement made public by the Saudi Press Agency: “In reference to what was shared on social media, videos and photos showing an incident inside the Social Education House in the Khamis Mushait Governorate in the Asir region, a directive was issued by His Royal Highness Prince Turki bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, governor of the Asir region, formed a committee to find out the incident, investigate all parties involved , and refer the case to the competent authority.”
On Wednesday morning, Arab social media users spent most of their time talking about the “Khamis Mushait orphans” hashtag on Twitter. However, the Emirate of Asir made no further statements regarding the incident.
Salma Al-Shehab, a student at Leeds University and a mother of two, is charged with following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter by Riyadh’s so-called “special terrorist court”.
Salma al-Shehab, a student at Leeds University and a mother of 2
A Saudi university student who had returned home for a vacation was sentenced to 34 years in prison for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on her personal Twitter account.
The sentence was handed down by Saudi Arabia’s so-called “special terrorist court” just weeks after US President Joe Biden’s visit to the Kingdom, which human rights activists warned could give Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) a green light to intensify his crackdown on dissidents and other pro-democracy activists.
The case poses evidence of how MBS has targeted Twitter users in his repression campaign, while also controlling a significant indirect stake in the US social media company through Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
In MBS’ playbook, Tweeting is a crime
Salma Al-Shehab, a 34-year-old mother of two, aged four and six, was initially sentenced to three years in prison for the “crime” of using an internet website to “cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security.”
However, an appeals court handed down the new sentence on Monday – 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban – after a public prosecutor requested that the court consider other alleged crimes.
Shehab was not a prominent or particularly vocal Saudi activist, neither in Saudi Arabia nor in the United Kingdom.
On Instagram, where she had only 159 followers, she described herself as a dental hygienist, medical educator, PhD student at Leeds University, lecturer at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, wife, and mother to her sons, Noah and Adam.
Her Twitter profile listed 2,597 followers. She regularly shared pictures of her young children and tweets about Covid burnout.
Shehab rarely retweeted posts from Saudi dissidents in exile calling for the release of political prisoners in the Kingdom.
The PhD student appeared to support the case of Loujain Al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi feminist activist who was previously imprisoned and tortured for advocating for women’s driving rights, and is now subject to a travel ban.
Someone who knew Shehab said she couldn’t stand injustice. She was described as well-educated and a voracious reader who had moved to the UK in 2018 or 2019 to pursue her PhD at the University of Leeds.
She had returned to Saudi Arabia for a vacation in December 2020, intending to bring her two children and husband with her. Saudi authorities then summoned her for questioning, and she was eventually arrested and tried for her tweets.
Of secret torture and oppressed revelations
In further detail, a person who followed her case revealed that Shehab had been held in solitary confinement at times and had sought to privately tell the judge details about how she had been treated that she did not want to reveal in front of her father during the trial.
She was not permitted to communicate the message to the judge, as per the source. Three judges signed the appeals verdict, but their signatures were illegible.
On its account, Twitter declined to comment on the case and did not respond to specific questions about Saudi Arabia’s influence over the company, according to the Guardian.
It is worth noting that Twitter previously did not respond to questions about why a senior aide to MBS, Bader Al-Asaker, was allowed to keep a verified Twitter account with more than 2 million followers, despite US government allegations that he orchestrated an illegal infiltration of the company, leading to the identification and imprisonment of anonymous Twitter users by the Saudi government. A former Twitter employee has been convicted in the case by a US court.
The Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns more than 5% of Twitter through his investment company, Kingdom Holdings, is one of Twitter’s most significant investors.
While bin Talal remains the company’s chairman, his authority over the company was called into question by the US media, including the Wall Street Journal, after it was revealed that the Saudi royal – a cousin of the crown prince – had been held captive at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh for 83 days.
The incident was part of a larger purge led by MBS against other members of the royal family and businessmen, which involved allegations of torture, coercion, and the expropriation of billions of dollars from Saudi Arabian coffers.
In May, Kingdom Holding announced that it had sold approximately 17% of its company to the PIF, of which bin Salman is chairman, for $1.5 billion. As a result, the Saudi government is a significant indirect investor in Twitter. According to Twitter, investors have no influence over the company’s day-to-day operations.
“MBS’s ruthless repression machine”
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights condemned Shehab’s sentence, which it said was the longest ever imposed on an activist. It was noted that many female activists had been subjected to unfair trials that resulted in arbitrary sentences, as well as “severe torture,” including sexual harassment.
Khalid Aljabri, a Saudi living in exile whose sister and brother are detained in Saudi Arabia, said the Shehab case demonstrated Saudi Arabia’s view that dissent equals terrorism.
“Salman’s draconian sentencing in a terrorism court over peaceful tweets is the latest manifestation of MBS’s ruthless repression machine,” he said.
“Just like [journalist Jamal] Khashoggi’s assassination, her sentencing is intended to send shock waves inside and outside the kingdom – dare to criticize MBS and you will end up dismembered or in Saudi dungeons.”
While the case has received little attention, the Washington Post published a sarcastic editorial about Saudi Arabia’s treatment of the Leeds student on Tuesday, stressing that her case demonstrated that the “commitments” the US President received on reforms were “a farce.”
“At the very least, Mr. Biden must now speak out forcefully and demand that Ms. Shehab be released and allowed to return to her sons, 4 and 6 years old, in the United Kingdom, and to resume her studies there,” it read.
A study, carried out by Grant Liberty, a human rights charity Prisoners revealed that prisoners held for opposing the government in Saudi Arabia are being murdered, “sexually” assaulted and inflicted with “sheer” brutality.
The study identified 311 known prisoners of conscience in the era of Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud [MBS]–the kingdom’s leader who is the current crown prince, deputy prime minister, and minister of defense.
Researchers, who shared the report exclusively with The Independent, claimed that 53 prisoners have been tortured, while six were sexually assaulted, and 14 were pushed into undergoing hunger strikes.
The report looked at the plight of 23 women’s rights activists, 11 of whom were still behind bars, as well as also identifying 54 journalists.
Some 22 of the prisoners were arrested for crimes that they carried out when they were still children – five of them were put to death. An additional 13 were facing the death penalty, while four had died in custody.
Lucy Rae, of Grant Liberty, told The Independent: “Sadly the abuse of the prisoners of conscience continues as the world watches on, women are subjected to sustained and brutal violations with no basic human rights.
“We call upon the kingdom to back up its statement of being a ‘modern and progressive country’ with actions and release innocent individuals who were disappeared, were arrested and subjected to sham trials.
“Imprisoning, torturing and abusing an elderly mother such as Aida Al Ghamdi because her son has sought asylum surely is abhorrent and wrong in any nation.”
Abdullah al-Ghamdi, a political and human rights activist who is the son of Al-Ghamdi, said he escaped Saudi Arabia after being threatened for campaigning against authoritarian policies in the middle eastern country.
His mother, Aida, and two of his brothers were arrested after he left, he added.
“They were arrested not because they had committed a crime, but because of my activism,” Al-Ghamdi, whose situation is explored in the report, said.
Al-Ghamdi, who lives in the UK, added: “For over three years, my dear ageing 65-year-old mother and my younger brother have been held by the Saudi royal family. They have been held in solitary confinement and subjected to physical torture by cigarette burning, beating and lashing.
“It’s very hard to contact my family as this will put them in danger as the Saudi government told them not to contact me and give me any updates on my mother and brother’s case, so as of yet I am unsure of my mother’s charges.”
He said his mother was held for over a year in Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddha before being moved to Dammam Mabahith Prison. He wishes she was “safe, free and be able to rejoice with her loved ones”.
“There is not a time where she is not on my mind and it pains me that all my hard work hasn’t led to a definite answer for her freedom,” he added.
Al-Ghamdi said he had been “fighting to bring justice and freedom to the Saudi nation” since 2004 and secure a “democracy where there is an independent justice system”.
He said his mother had been tortured in front of her son Adil, who was also beaten and tortured.
“Due to her old age she has diabetes, high blood pressure and she suffers from regular abdomen pains; due to the unjust treatment and torture within prison her mental health has worsened,” he said of his mother.
“MBS and the Saudi royal family are holding her hostage demanding that I return to Saudi Arabia to face torture and imminent death so that people like me who stand for justice, equality and a fair society are silenced like those before me.”
He urged the “world, the UN and every single person with a voice” to speak out against “this outrageous behavior”.
Rae also cited the case of Loujain Al Hathloul, who was subjected to a travel ban and jailed for campaigning for women’s rights.
Human rights organizations say Al Hathloul has been forced to endure abuse including electric shocks, flogging and sexual harassment while in jail. Loujain, who successfully campaigned to win Saudi women the right to drive, was arrested alongside 10 other women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia in May 2018 – weeks before the country reversed the driving ban.
Rae warned it was imperative to “make people aware of the sheer brutality, murders and sexual assault happening to prisoners of conscience” in the country, adding it is “our duty as a human race” to protect the innocent.
“And we can start by demanding the release of these prisoners. Grant Liberty will not stop until every prisoner of conscience is freed and that Saudi Arabia is recognized for what it really is – a pariah to democracy and human rights,” she said.
The Saudi kingdom of blood has yet another time committed a heinous crime against the peaceful activists of the Shia-populated Qatif province.
As part of a heavy-handed crackdown led by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] against political dissidents and pro-democracy campaigners, the Riyadh regime executed two young men from the Qatif over trumped-up allegations of involvement in terrorist activities.
The Saudi Ministry of Interior alleged in a statement on Saturday that the death sentences were carried out against Hussein Ali Al Abu Abdullah and Mohammad Khodr al-Awami.
The ministry further claimed that the Saudi nationals “collaborated with terrorist groups, fomented unrest and insecurity in the country, possessed weapons, ammunition as well as rocket-propelled grenades and attempted to disrupt national security.”
Last month, two human rights organizations filed a complaint at the United Nations against arbitrary executions in Saudi Arabia, especially after the execution of dozens of prisoners in a single day in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights [ESOHR] and Reprieve, a UK-based non-profit organization of international lawyers and investigators, said the Riyadh regime openly declared its disregard for international principles as well as its commitments and obligations through the executions of 81 men, 41 of whom were Shia Muslims, in March.
Social media users have reported heavy deployment of Saudi security forces in the city of Qatif to crush any protest against the recent execution of scores of dissidents.
State news agency Saudi Press Agency said on March 12 that the authorities had executed 81 people in one day on a variety of offences.
The 2022 executions exceeded the total number of Saudi Arabia’s punishments by death throughout last year.
Back in early January 2016, Saudi authorities also executed 47 people, including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who had vociferously called for democracy in the kingdom and advocated anti-regime protests. Nimr had been arrested in Qatif, Eastern Province, in 2012.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed more than 900 prisoners in an increasing rate. In 2019 alone, Saudi Arabia set a record number of executions after authorities executed 184 people, despite a general decrease in the number of executions around the world.
Ever since MBS became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has arrested dozens of activists, bloggers, intellectuals and others perceived as political opponents, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnations of the crackdown.
Human rights activists warn that Saudi officials are planning to execute over 40 teenagers over their participation in anti-regime protests in the Shia-majority Qatif region.
Muslim scholars have been executed and women’s rights campaigners have been put behind bars and tortured as freedom of expression, association, and belief continue to be denied.
Over the past years, Riyadh has also redefined its anti-terrorism laws to target activism.
Saudi authorities are concealing rampant abuses and pitiful conditions at migrant detention centers while continuing to arrest thousands of African and Yemeni migrants, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Ethiopians tell MEE they are being beaten, extorted, and left in putrid, overcrowded rooms as thousands of people are rounded up and deported from across the kingdom
Cramped conditions in a migrant detention centre in Saudi Arabia (supplied)
Ethiopian migrants awaiting deportation said Saudi authorities have conducted mass searches of the centers, confiscating phones and any devices that could be used to relay images of their suffering to the outside world.
The sources said the crackdown was an attempt to prevent their conditions from being broadcast to the world during Ramadan, which would risk criticism and uproar in the Muslim world during the holy month.
Police have also ordered people set for deportation to sign non-disclosure agreements forbidding them from talking to journalists about their experiences.
“They came in here looking for phones because they don’t want the world to see images of our suffering here,” says Semir, an Ethiopian migrant currently held at a deportation center in Riyadh. “When they would find a phone, they would beat up the owner with batons.”
The number of Ethiopian detainees held at various migrant detention centers has swelled in recent months. In an attempt to ease the burden, Saudi authorities reached an agreement with Ethiopia in March to fly out at least 100,000 Ethiopians, many of whom were detained in waves of anti-migrant crackdowns last year.
Ethiopians held in the centers have told MEE that they are given little to eat and are held for months in putrid, overcrowded rooms.
“People are going mad here. There is little food and many of us haven’t been outdoors in almost nine months,” says Nebil, a detainee in Riyadh. “We used to get a piece of bread three times a day. Since Ramadan, we get it only once, at night.”
The Saudi foreign ministry has not responded to a request for comment.
In 2020, smartphones smuggled into two migrant detention centers captured graphic images depicting hundreds of emaciated African men, some appearing to be on the brink of death, in cramped quarters where sewage flowed and disease was rampant.
Rights groups confirmed that abuse and deaths were commonplace at these centers and in October 2020, the European Union parliament passed a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia for its mistreatment of migrants.
The uproar eventually led to tens of thousands of migrants being repatriated throughout 2021, many of whom are struggling to cope with enduring trauma.
But many remained behind in the facilities, with Ethiopia’s government preoccupied last year by the county’s civil war and rebel fighters threatening to attack the capital city.
Eventually, the outcry of social media users and relatives in Ethiopia is believed to have pushed Ethiopian officials to send a high-level delegation to Riyadh earlier this year, to begin negotiating the return of their citizens.
Since an agreement was signed in March, thousands of Ethiopians have returned to their homeland, with another 1,031 landing in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday.
However, mass arrests by Saudi authorities continue to target thousands more, with 15,000 migrants, almost all of them Ethiopians and Yemenis, detained in a single week in March alone.
As a result, detention centers aren’t emptying, and the abuse persists, according to detainees.
“This place is disease-ridden. Everyone grows sick because they leave us to live and eat on a filthy floor with the stench of urine everywhere,” one told MEE.
The statements by the migrants about the conditions at the detention centers appear to correspond with the assessment of staffers from the International Organization for Migration [IOM] and other UN agencies supporting relief efforts at returnee reception centers in Ethiopia.
“In addition to injuries and illnesses suffered due to the hazardous journey, the IOM has observed that communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and skin conditions are prevalent among returnees,” says Yvonne Ndege, spokesperson for the agency’s East and Horn of Africa office.
“Prolonged periods in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities may well be a contributing factor to this issue.”
MEE spoke to nine inmates at the Riyadh deportation center and the infamous al-Shumaisi prison near Mecca. Detainees used mobile phones with no internet connection that survived the pre-Ramadan purge.
“We have been left here to rot,” said Ali, a migrant at al-Shumaisi center. “Since they put me here, I’ve seen diplomats from Chad, Ghana, and Somalia come to inquire about their citizens. Nobody from the Ethiopian embassy has visited even though Ethiopians are the majority here.”
Ali added that while beatings of migrants and poor sanitation have long been the norm, he revealed that in recent months, prison officials have begun extorting the families of detainees.
“Every week, the guards come here with what they call a ‘souq’ [market]. They bring clean water, biscuits, and other items from outside. We can only purchase these items by having our families transfer money to the personal accounts of guards and prison staff. But they charge us more than the price on the Saudi market, and they pocket a lot of the money transferred to them.”
Ethiopia’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Lencho Bati, appeared unwilling to address accusations of neglect by his office, nor claims that extortion and abuse by Saudi prison officials are ongoing in the centers.
“I am returning to Riyadh from Mecca. Let’s talk after Eid,” he told MEE. Bati is yet to respond to a request for comment sent after the Eid holiday.
Many of the detainees are among the tens of thousands who are estimated each year to trek along the extremely dangerous migrant corridor from East Africa, across the Red Sea, into Yemen, and up to Saudi Arabia. But others had spent up years living and working legally in the kingdom prior to being arrested.
“I spent seven years working for a company in Jeddah. I never needed assistance and provided for my loved ones,” said Omer, another migrant at al-Shumaisi.
“But my company laid me off as it went bankrupt because of the pandemic. Without an employer, I couldn’t renew my residency papers. I was arrested shortly after my papers expired.”
Semir added that this was the case with many of the new arrivals that had flooded the Riyadh facility he is currently held at. Nearly 10,000 of those detained in the March crackdown were singled out for residency permit issues.
“Imagine being a driver for a company one day, and then suddenly being forced to squat in a tiny, crowded room with no food and contagious skin rashes the next day. It’s tragic,” Semir said.
Three Ethiopians deported home described being told to sign non-disclosure agreements instructing them to avoid speaking about their experiences in detention. One said the officer warned that “legal action would be taken against violators even in Ethiopia”.
Others, meanwhile, weren’t actually migrants, but Saudi-born children of Ethiopian migrants who under Saudi law aren’t eligible for citizenship.
Aisha, 18, spent four months at al-Shumaisi before being put aboard a flight to her parents’ country. She recalled the night when the immigration police, known as “jawazat”, raided her family’s home in Mecca and arrested her alongside her brother and father.
Both Aisha and her brother were born in Saudi Arabia and have lived there all their lives.
“They came unannounced at night and broke down the door. They used foul language while addressing us and escorted us to a minibus they brought along with the raiding party,” she said while fighting back tears. “It was very humiliating.”
Many returnees to Ethiopia are suffering from mental illness, alongside recovering from the physical abuse they endured. Mental health workers at returnee centers are already under strain.
The IOM’s Yvonne Ndege said that in addition to the counselling and psychosocial support the IOM is providing, “many returnees also often require intensive and clinical psychiatric care when they arrive home”.
The Opposition Group in the Arabian Peninsula marked on Monday the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of 41 Shia activists who were brutally beheaded by the Saudi regime for fabricated crimes only because of their participation in peaceful demonstrations across the kingdom.
Held in the Iranian city of Qom, the event included a memorial session for the martyrs, then member of the Opposition Group in the Arabian Peninsula, Sheikh Jassem, delivered a speech in which he said that this massacre is the biggest in term of numbers.
He then explained that in particular, the biggest share of those different security executions targets the Shia population in the Arabian Peninsula, only because they are leading the activism to change and reform the political and social reality.
Sheikh Jassem further stressed that those activists were using a civilized manner based on holding peaceful demonstrations, and raising the legitimate popular demands, adding the unfolding events are a continuation of the accumulative historic course of confronting injustice and oppression.
On March 12th, Saudi Arabia has executed 81 prisoners in a single day over alleged ‘terror-related offenses,’ in the largest mass execution carried out by the highly-conservative Arab kingdom in recent memory.
Half of the executed prisoners are political prisoners who have been detained years ago for their participation in peaceful rallies against the Saudi regime, and they come from the highly Shia-populated eastern regions of Qatif and Ahsaa.
The 41 martyrs who exercised their supposedly legitimate right to express their opinion and demand justice and equality in their country, were gathered in a same list with ‘terror’ cases to deceive the local and international public opinions that the punishment was based on ‘terror’ charges.
Added to the bloody crime, the Saudi intelligence apparatus banned the families of the 41 martyrs from holding memorial ceremonies; not even to create a WhatsApp group to receive messages of condolences. The Saudi regime’s intelligence further threatened them not to speak up at all.
In the kingdom of reversed standards, who serves justice? And who compensate the undue losses of the families of the victims?
Social media users circulated videos showing a massive funeral ceremony held for a number of scores of Saudi dissidents, who were recently executed by the Al Saud clan.
Thousands of people were seen massing for the event in the Shia-populated Qatif region of the kingdom’s Eastern Province on Sunday.
The regime executed as many as 81 prisoners in a single day on Saturday over what it called “terror-related offenses,” in the largest mass execution carried out in the kingdom in recent memory. As many as 41 of the victims hailed from Qatif.
The executions have been followed by waves of popular protests, especially in the kingdom’s east. Domestic and regional groupings have been issuing condemnatory statements against the country.
Social media users reported that the kingdom has started summoning some of the families of the victims and threatened them to declare that they were content with the executions or face consequences.
This has, however, not prevented the Eastern Province’s people from seeking to commemorate the victims. Owners of religious centers are reportedly planning various events to mark the memory of those executed.
Local activists have also been publicizing the names and features of the victims amid the kingdom’s reported refusal to hand over the bodies of some of the victims.
Leading Saudi analyst Ali Abbas al-Ahmed has shared a list of protesters and activists executed by the Saudi regime on his twitter page, with the post going viral.
During the last 48 hours, Saudi security forces in plain clothes have reportedly been deployed across Qatif, preventing the formation of more than two people.
However, the people of Qatif have vowed to take to the streets as soon as they can to protest the brutal execution of innocent people.
In a statement, the Arabian Peninsula Opposition bloc, which is an umbrella for Saudi dissidents, said the 41 executed prisoners, belonged to the peaceful al-Hirak al-Janoubi movement. The bloc of Saudi dissidents called the kingdom’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman “nothing more than a murderer, who enjoys shedding the blood of the innocent,” saying the mass execution was carried out against young people, who had exercised their right to express their opinion and had been imprisoned as a result.
Rights groups condemned the executions, saying “they flew in the face of” claims by bin Salman “that the country was overhauling its justice system and limiting its use of the death penalty.”
“These executions are the opposite of justice,” said Ali Adubusi, the director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, a watchdog group. He said that in many of the cases, the charges against the accused involved “not a drop of blood.”
The Saudi authorities have executed 81 nationals and residents, including 40 in Al-Qatif all at once.
Saudi Interior Ministry said that the convicts were guilty of holding “deviant beliefs and pledging allegiance to foreign organizations.
Saudi authorities have executed on Saturday 81 nationals and residents for allegedly being involved in terrorism within the Kingdom.
Saudi media outlets commented on the incident by publishing statements saying that the local authorities “have committed the crime of executing 40 detainees in Al-Qatif in one single day.”
عاجل: السعودية ترتكب جريمة إعدام 40 معتقلاً من أهالي القطيف دفعة واحدة.
Riyadh executed 81 men, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian national, after they were convicted on charges including “terrorism”, as per the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Saudi Interior Ministry claimed the convicts were guilty of holding “deviant beliefs and pledging allegiance to foreign organizations,” adding that three of the Yemenis were guilty of “forming a terrorist organization belonging to Al-Houthi,” the Yemeni popular army forces that Biden himself reversed he decision that deems them a “terrorist” organization.
Back in January, the Saudi Arabia Court of Appeal ratified the death sentence of 2 Bahraini young men, Jaafar Sultan and Sadiq Thamer.
After Riyadh’s decision, demonstrations took place in Dar Kulaib, a Bahraini village, rejecting “Saudi’s unjust execution against the people of the village.”
Sultan and Thamer denied the charges against them and considered them politically motivated, knowing that human rights organizations have documented that they were tortured by Saudi security forces to extract confessions during their arrest.
In June 2021, Saudi Arabian authorities executed Mustafa Al-Darwish while he was handcuffed, and then they disposed of his body in an undisclosed location for “crimes” he committed as a minor, which include “participating in armed rebellion,” and “sowing discord”.
The Saudi authorities prevented the media from publishing “condolence groups” links for the martyr Mustafa Al-Darwish, a resident of Tarout Island, Qatif.
The martyr was arrested as a minor because he participated in some of the popular movement activities in Qatif in 2015.
السلطات السعودية تُعدم 81 مواطناً ومقيماً، بينهم يمنيون وسوري، تدّعي أنّهم متورّطون في “قضايا إرهابية” داخل المملكة.
وزارة الداخلية السعودية تُعدم 81 شخصاً بحجة ارتكابهم جرائم مرتبطة بـ”الإرهاب”
أقدمت السلطات السعودية، اليوم السبت، على إعدام 81 مواطناً ومقيماً ادَّعت أنّهم “متورطون في قضايا إرهابية داخل المملكة”.
وقالت وكالة الأنباء السعودية إنّ الرياض أعدمت 81 رجلاً، منهم 7 يمنيين وسوري، بعد “أحكام متعلقة بالإرهاب”، بينما أفادت وسائل إعلام سعودية معارضة بأنّ السلطات المحلية “ارتكبت جريمة إعدام بحق 40 معتقلاً من أهالي القطيف، دُفعة واحدة”.
عاجل: السعودية ترتكب جريمة إعدام 40 معتقلاً من أهالي القطيف دفعة واحدة.
وقالت وزارة الداخلية السعودية إنّ بين الذين أُعدموا “مدانين باعتناق الفكر الضالّ والمعتقدات ذات الولاءات الخارجية”، مشيرةً إلى أنّ 3 من اليمنيين، الذين أُعدموا، أُدينوا بتهمة “تشكيل مجموعة إرهابية” تابعة لحركة “أنصار الله”.
وأيّدت محكمة الاستئناف السعودية، في الـ11 من كانون الثاني/يناير، حُكماً بإعدام الشابَّين البحرينيين جعفر سلطان وصادق ثامر.
وفي ذلك الحين، خرجت تظاهرات في منطقة دار كليب البحرينية، رفضاً لما سمّاه المتظاهرون “الحُكمَ السعودي الجائر بالإعدام ظُلماً” بحق ابنَي القرية.
وأقدمت السلطات السعودية، في منتصف حزيران/يونيو 2021، على قطع رأس المعتقل الشاب مصطفى آل درويش وهو مقيَّد اليدين، ثُمّ تمّ التخلص من جثمانه في مكان مجهول بتهمة “الخروج على ولي الأمر”؛ أي اتخاذ موقف معارض للسلطة.
An American think tank dedicated to covering the social, economic, and political diversity of the Arab countries in the Gulf region says Saudi Arabia is facing an unprecedented level of insecurity, stressing that the oil-rich kingdom has been given the cold shoulder by most of the Western parties that supply it with various munitions.
According to the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington [AGSIW], Saudi Arabia is being targeted by Yemeni missiles, and the Yemeni war has spiraled out of control and the country’s national security is now prone to a host of threats compared to the time when the Yemen crisis erupted in March 2015.
It added that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS] is not taken seriously by most of the Western parties that have guaranteed arms supplies to the kingdom.
Some politicians in Canada, Germany and Britain have all suggested restricting arms exports to Saudi Arabia, AGSIW noted, highlighting that a bipartisan consensus has even begun in the United States against arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
This comes as American news website Insider wrote that lack of loyalty among members of the Allegiance Council, which is the body responsible for determining future succession to the throne of Saudi Arabia, to MBS has raised international concern over the future of the country in the event current monarch King Salman passes away.
The website, in an article published on Wednesday, dealt with how the kingdom would transfer power to its crown prince when his sick father dies, and how this constitutes a concern for the international community, the United States in particular.
Saudi royals, billionaires and senior government officials were tortured and blackmailed in early November 2017, when they were rounded up and detained at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in an extraordinary power play by MbS to remove people who could potentially pose a political threat.
“On the first night, everyone was blindfolded and nearly everyone was subjected to what Egyptian intelligence calls the ‘night of the beating,’” an unnamed source with intimate knowledge of what took place told British daily newspaper the Guardian in November 2020.
The source added, “People were asked if they knew why they were there. No one did. Most were beaten, some of them badly. There were people tied to the walls, in stress positions. It went on for hours, and all of those doing the torturing were Saudis.”
The “night of the beating” was apparently intended to “soften up” the detainees before the interrogators arrived to question them about corruption.
Some of the prisoners spoke of being threatened with the release of private information, such as extramarital affairs, or business dealings that would have caused great controversy.
The purge, also nicknamed the “sheikhdown”, purportedly came at the price of breaking trust between the monarchy and the Saudi business community.
One of the sources said the November 2017 round-up at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh “was about consolidating his [MBS] rule, plain and simple” and came before the cruel murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.
“The fact that he got away with it allowed him to do the latter. The same guards involved in the Ritz were involved in the killing. History won’t be kind to MBS on either,” the source said.
Ever since bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has arrested dozens of activists, bloggers, intellectuals and others perceived as political opponents, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnations of the crackdown.
Muslim Saudi scholars have been executed, women’s rights campaigners have been put behind bars and tortured, and freedom of expression, association and belief continue to be denied.
Rushing to fill this year’s bloody record of beheading its own nationals, Saudi Arabia executed a citizen from the al-Awamia Neighborhood in the Shia-populated Eastern Province of Qatif on Tuesday, October 5, 2021.
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Interior identified the Saudi national as Muslim Mohammad al-Muhsin.
Al-Muhsin was brutally arrested from his workplace at al-Araf Commercial Center in the Saudi town of Awamia in the eastern province of Qatif on Monday, November 23rd, 2015.
The Saudi regime claimed that al-Muhsin “was behind the killing of Dhaifulla al-Qarashi, attempted to confront the security forces, and opened fire towards them.” During the arrest, the Saudi regime forces opened fire, shot him in his leg and arrested him, while unlike their narrative, no security personnel was harmed, even in the reports circulating by the regime’s media outlets.
Locals, however, who were present at the time of the arrest, indicated that more than 15 security personnel stormed the commercial center, moved towards al-Muhsin immediately and started beating him using batons and the bottoms of their machine guns. They even forced customers who were at the place to lie on the ground.
Without providing any evidence on the fabricated claims, the Saudi authorities neither identified were the incident took place, nor the weapon that was used by the alleged perpetrator.
Al-Muhsin was brutally tortured during his arrest, not to mention the pain he had been through as the regime arrested him without removing the bullet he sustained in his left leg during the raid. He was also deprived from the right to assign a lawyer in a grave violation of human rights, as well as local and international laws.
After several delays of the show trial sessions, the Appellate Court of the Specialized Criminal Court decided to sentence al-Muhsin to death, in yet another brutal measure of many similar Saudi regime measures consistently targeting the people of the kingdom’s Shia-populated region.
The sentence was executed after the non-proved guilty citizen had spent almost six years behind bars, where only God knows what kind of treatment he had been through.
American “Freedom First” rights organization launched a campaign against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to condemn his behavior in oppressing his opponents atop of which is the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
During the “Emmys 2021” festival in Los Angeles, the group staged a huge campaign against MBS in an effort to confront the attempts to polish his image in Hollywood.
The campaign included posters on walls and anti-MBS slogans placed on billboards and commercial vehicles.
Riyadh attempts to polish the image of its rulers in every possible way, and invests billions of dollars in different occasion for this purpose, whether in sports or arts, however, all such efforts are futile given its criminal behavior starting with the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and not ending with the arrest of former Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, the US-Saudi-led war on Yemen, and the daily arrests of whoever voices rejection to its policies or even expresses his/her opinion.
The Saudi regime committed yet another crime against opinion prisoners from Qatif eastern province as Adnan Mostafa al-Sharfa was pronounced executed upon a decree by the kingdom’s bloodthirsty rulers.
In allegations to justify the crime, the Saudi interior ministry claimed that al-Sharfa was smuggling weapons and attacking the security forces.
The ministry’s statement mentioned that the execution was carried out upon a royal decree.
The Saudi regime authorities seldom carries out the executions in an attempt to disguise its criminality, especially in the eyes of the western public opinion. saudi arabia executionsSaudiArabiaHumanRights
On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, which is commemorated every year on August 30, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that, despite being “strictly prohibited by international human rights law in all circumstances, enforced disappearances continue to be used worldwide as a means of repression, intimidation and stifling opposition. Lawyers, witnesses, political opposition and human rights defenders are at particular risk of enforced disappearance,” he said. “This deprives families and communities of the right to know the truth about their loved ones, accountability, justice and reparations.”
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia practices enforced disappearance, on a large scale, especially against political detainees and opinion-makers through blatant circumvention and evasion. Most families of the victims are unaware of the fate of their relatives, after they have been detained on the street or in their workplaces, because they have been deprived the right to communicate with them and have no access to a lawyer.
In many cases, after a forced disappearance, that last for hours or days, officials at General Investigation Prisons allow the disappeared person a brief contact to inform his family of his whereabouts, only to return and disappear for periods lasting a year or more, during which he is tortured and denied the right to communicate with the outside world or access a lawyer.
In other cases, enforced disappearance extends without any information about the victim’s whereabouts or the reason for the arrest, for months or years. In light of Saudi Arabia’s intimidation policy against activists and human rights defenders.
The European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights documented the Saudi Arabian government’s use of enforced disappearance as a prelude to torture, extracting confessions, and in many cases the use of these confessions to issue death sentences.
Enforced disappearance is defined, according to the article II of the International Convention for the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearance, as “arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of individuals acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which deprives him of the protection of the law”.
During 2021, ESOHR monitored the practice of enforced disappearance by the security services against a number of detainees, including activists:
Abdullah al-Mubaraki:
On July 22, 2021, Al-Mabaheth forces arrested online activist Abdullah bin Awad al-Mubaraki from his home in Yanbu. The family does not officially know the reason for the arrest and news broke from the moment of the arrest. Despite attempts by the family to find out where he is, and to verify his whereabouts from the prisons of Yanbu, Medina and Jeddah, they have been unable to reach him. However, activists believe that the reason for his arrest stems from his expression of opinion, his participation in campaigns on social media to defend political and civil rights, and his opposition to government policies.
Lina al-Sharif
In late May 2021, officials from the Saudi State Security Presidency raided the Sharif family’s home in Riyadh, arresting Dr. Lina al-Sharif and taking her to an unknown location. Before her arrest, al-Sharif had been active on social media, discussing Saudi politics and defending human rights issues in Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah
On May 12, 2021, State Security forces arrested Abdullah Jilan, in Medina, after it stormed his mother’s house and searched him before taking him to an unknown location. Jilan was active on Twitter, calling for his right to work and fundamental freedoms in Saudi Arabia. So far, his fate and whereabouts remain unknown.
Najla Abd El-Aziz:
Saudi security forces arrested activist Najla Abdul Aziz Mohammed al-Marwan on July 20, 2021, from her home in the capital al-Riyadh. Najla is a young divorced woman and a mother of two children. According to reports, Saudi Arabia is still forcibly hiding her after more than a month in detention, and the family has no information about her.
Najla’s Twitter account shows that she welcomed and supported the call to demonstrate in conjunction with Arafa Day. A group of activists launched a hashtag called #Arafat_Day_protest, and called for participation in a campaign against the government’s policies and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with the goal of calling for the release of detainees, in addition to enabling young people’s right to employment, tax removal, and more.
ESOHR also monitored other arbitrary arrests. Local sources said victims were also subjected to enforced disappearance, including Sheikh Abdullah al-Shihri, who was arrested for tweets criticizing statements made by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Among those reported missing are Reina Abdulaziz and Yasmine al-Ghafili.
Continuous Enforced Disappearances:
In addition, Saudi Arabia regularly hides individuals, with no information on their whereabouts for years.
In April 2016, preacher Suleiman al-Darwish disappeared during his visit to Mecca. His family does not know any details about the arrest or its reasons nor has it been officially informed of any information about his whereabouts. However, the Ministry of Interior posted his name on its website, which is dedicated to identifying the names and status of detainees. The statement indicated that he was “under investigation”, but his name was removed after a while.
Al-Darwish is still missing and despite the request from the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances for official information from Saudi Arabia on his whereabouts, his whereabouts remain unknown.”
Human rights organizations that received information in May 2012 confirmed to them that Al-Duwaish was transferred directly to the office of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman after his arrest, where he beat him.
In August 2015, the Saudi government announced the arrest of Ahmad al-Mughassil in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Since his arrest six years ago, the family has not been able to contact him or to know his whereabouts. Although Saudi Arabia announced the arrest, it did not announce where he was being held or the charges he is officially facing. Information the family received about the possible murder or death under torture raised concerns that the family could not get any information about his condition since his arrest.
In January 2020, Saudi security forces arrested Mohammed Al Ammar during a military raid in Qatif. The Saudi government announced the arrest of Ammar, who had been on wanted lists for years, but the family was unable to find out where he was, and they did not allow him any visits. In light of information about his severe injury during the arrest. Al-Ammar was not offered a trial, unless his whereabouts were known to be in enforced disappearance.
Hide as an introduction to unfair judgments:
Besides the cases in which individuals are still forcibly disappeared, detainees face harsh sentences, sometimes up to death, despite being subjected to enforced disappearance at the time of arrest. Among them is Mohammed Al-Shakhouri, who was forcibly disappeared by the Saudi government for three days after his arrest, and who was then able to communicate with his family in brief call, not being able to know what he was exposed to for eight months. The organization has also monitored executions of detainees including minors, despite violations there were subjected to including enforced disappearances, such as Abdelkrim al-Hawaj.
According to ESOHR, the Saudi government uses enforced disappearance for a variety of reasons. While in many cases concealment is used as a prelude to torture in order to extract confessions, it is used for reprisal motives that refuse to disclose definitively the status and location of the person forcibly disappeared and to intimidate the community and families.
The organization maintains that Saudi Arabia, through its practice of enforced disappearance, is committing a “crime against humanity” violating its domestic and international laws. And it recalls that no justification for the continuation of this crime can be invoked, as affirmed in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or the threat of war, internal political instability or any other exception, may be invoked to justify enforced disappearance.”
In a response sent to Yemen Supreme Political Council President Mahdi al-Mashat, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi reiterates his country’s solidarity with the Yemeni people against the aggression.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the Parliament, August 21, 2021
The Yemen Supreme Political Council President, Mahdi al-Mashat, received a thank-you letter from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in reply to his congratulatory letter on his victory in the presidential elections.
Al-Masirah reported that the Iranian President lauded the steadfastness of the Yemeni people against the aggression for the 7th year in a row, stressing his country’s solidarity with the Yemeni people’s plight in their battle against the brutal blockade and acts of aggression. He also stressed his keenness on expanding the horizons of cooperation between the two brotherly countries and peoples in different fields, in service of their common interests.
The Iranian President had received, early this month, “Ansar Allah” Spokesperson Mohammad Abdul Salam, who headed the national Yemeni delegation. During the meeting, President Raisi said that the epic resistance and steadfastness the Yemeni people have embodied so far have astounded the world.
Raisi had declared in his inauguration speech on August 5 that his administration “will stand beside the oppressed wherever they may be, in Europe, America, Africa, Yemen, Syria, or Palestine.”
Some Saudi princes are willing to file lawsuits against the Saudi crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman in US courts after he has confiscated their money and arrested members of their families without defined charges.
Rights groups uncovered, according to “Saudi Wikleaks”, that some Saudi princes made contracts with American legal companies to prepare judicial lawsuits to be filed against the crown prince, pointing to that the transformations in American policy as Joe Biden came to power, have pushed them to discuss their issues with the US Congress.
According to the same sources, the Congress members pledged to support those affected by MBS’ policies at the White House and in any place across the United States.
This issue rises in parallel with an uprising by the family of late Saudi King Abdulla bin Abdul Aziz inside the kingdom, as a new challenge MBS has to face.
Although he has arrested his cousins, the family decided to push former National Guard Minister, Mutab bin Abdullah to the forefront again, by appointing him the Chief of Secretaries of “King Abdullah Humanitarian Institution.”
No information was provided about this choice, and the decision coincided with a social media campaign that demanded releasing three detained princes, Turki, Faisal, and Mashaal.
Turki has been detained by MBS since the end of 2017 as part of the “Ritz Carlton” purge, while his two brothers, Faisal and Mashaal have only been detained since a few months ago.
In the same context, other documents revealed secret rebellion on the side of some Saudi princes against MBS’ tyranny in dealing with them.
The documents showed that a number of the Al Saud princes, who have been detained after King Salman and his son took power, have signed contracts with an American lobby to influence the ruling regime.
The lobbying company is called “Mercury Public Affairs”, and aims at pushing the American and British governments, and the European Union, to learn the whereabouts of the members of the Saudi royal family.
Among them is former crown prince Mohammad Bin Nayef, and Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz.
“Mercury Public Affairs” has made contacts with members of the Congress to demand pressuring the Saudi government to learn whether the detained princes are alive or not, and to present a clear accusations list that explains the reasons behind detaining them, then to release those who are not charged and unfreeze their financial assets.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 